Torchwood 2034
by Jackie Guardian
Summary: Outside the government, beyond the police...scuffling with UNIT. The 21st century is where it's all going down. With four A-levels and a degree in Creative Writing the new Torchwood team are somewhat ready and they are just about to make a discovery...
1. Chapter 1

Torchwood Three's black box had been stored away safely in The Black Archive for quite some time now. So it wasn't exactly a black box – but I'll get to that. It was dug up the in the Cardiff bay explosion of July '09 and since then it had been in several hands; first the British government, then a collector in Salt Lake City before being 'confiscated' by UNIT, living the last few years under lock and key in a vault far beneath The Tower Of London.

You see – everyone knew about what was really going on in Cardiff Bay. There were the Pizza Deliveries and figures seen stood on top of buildings, not to mention a highly suspicious black windowed SUV constantly tearing around the city. When the explosion went off, it was deemed a gas leak or something; there were some old railway structures down there – or that's what the news said – but for the people of Cardiff city, there was only one word on everybody's lips: Torchwood. And sure thing…The pizza's stopped. The sightings stopped. The SUV was not seen – for a while anyway.

Torchwood One was massive. Huge. It was based on the top seven floors of Canary Wharf for fucks sake. There was a London wide battle for control of the human race between two genetically deficient, armoured, super mutants 100 foot above their main base of operations and what was the excuse? Mass hallucinations. Christ. But that's the English I s'pose, we didn't get away with it in Cardiff.

So back to this black box. It wasn't a black box. That's just what people thought. Van Statten bought it for sake of it – he did have too much money – but it was Torchwood's; therefore it was surely alien, therefore he wanted it. Kate Stewart wanted it as she had picked up fragments of intel from what had been worked on, which she suspected was highly dangerous. They were both right of course.

Think way back to the naughties again, now deceased Torchwood technician Toshiko Sato worked on a variety of projects – the more I learn about this woman the more I like her – anyway one of those was some form of temporal technology. It was dubbed a 'Time Lock' but the effects are closer to what we have on record as a 'Temporal Displacement'. Still it was mad powerful and came in useful on more than one occasion. But the thing was not even Toshiko knew the extent of what she made; she had just spliced together what fell through The Rift.

UNIT worked it out first. Within a week it was in The Black Archive. And for those of you who don't know, it is legitimately the most difficult room to get into in the western world. Now when Torchwood finally twigged – which I will admit was embarrassingly slow – talks were set up to amicably retrieve the device. Those plans went to shit when Kate wiped our minds while we were there, and again, embarrassingly it took us a few go's before we noticed. They thought they could dick us around just because they are an international organisation and we have four A-levels and a degree between us, but HA! They were wrong.

We are getting to where this extremely informal mission de-brief is going. Okay picture the scene: I rock up to The Tower Of London with an ear piece in and sunglasses on, looking the part - but my ears are a weird shape so I cant use an ear piece and to be honest it was overcast so I wasn't wearing shades – so there I am by The Tower Of London pretending to be the next dumb member of Torchwood out for our 'Black Box'… but this time I have a temporary cyber implant that reboots my short term memory every couple of minutes. You should have seen my acting, it was class. I managed to pass of the reboot off as a nervous twitch – I should have got an Oscar. So anyway I point a gun at Kate and then walk out with our 'Black Box' among other things *ahem* _CLASSIFIED_ And I know this is where I am suppose to retell events to the letter but if anyone ever reads this it will be a great mystery and I'll sound really cool.

So I leg it back to Cardiff with our box and everyone's suspicions are completely correct. It is indeed what created the old hub's time shifting among other things and this is the _really_ cool part. The temporal displacement doesn't just 'move' reality, it overwrites it. To us mere mortals the actual difference is superficial, but in theory that means there is a _base copy_. No pun intended.

Anyway that's the debrief up to speed somewhat and I have an idea.

Trys-out.


	2. Chapter 2

In his haste Trystan slammed into the main foyers double door a bit too hard as they flew open. He glanced around the entrance to one of Cardiff's most popular leisure centres gripping his Torchwood issue side-arm close, pointed at the ceiling. It was deserted, but there were no bodies at least; and he could hear the screams so they weren't too late. "Ivy what do we have?"

"Umm…" She jabbed at her mobile phone sized device. "We have, err, two maybe-no two . One is in the gym, the other is heading towards the changing rooms."

"Weevils?" asked Lucia expectantly.

"Weevils."

"Which way is which?" Trys looked around for some kind of visual cue.  
"Don't you work out Trys?" Rhydian jutted in, in a somewhat light hearted tone.

"Like I need to with this job." Trys replied, not particularly amused. "Ivy with me, Rhydian and Luch toward the pool." The team split up, pacing over the purple and blue carpet.

"I can't hear anymore screams…" Ivy worried, creeping behind Trystan. They were at a set of double doors and Trys was looking through the circular window to the gym beyond. "What does the scanner say?" He said softly.

"I've still got the E.T. reading and…I don't know…I'm not getting anything accurate today." Ivy was stressing out. She hadn't been with them all that long; in fact she was the only member that had been recruited since Trystan took over Torchwood Three so he felt partially responsible for her still. Still it was the fact she cared that he gave her the job, he worried about the other two. "No wait…Trys I think there's someone in there with it." Ivy half whispered with a trace of panic. Trystan reached down for the handle and pushed the door open, striding in to the room with his gun raised. His eyes darted around the gym. Equipment scattered the large room: rows of treadmills, weight-lifting machines and plenty of things Trys didn't know the names of. With Ivy following behind, their eyes scanned the room until they saw it. The large, hairy, ugly headed creature in some kind of boiler suit crept around the room as if it were looking for something. It didn't walk like a person, and if you looked in its beetle eyes above an elongated fanged mouth you'd understand.

It wasn't like a person; it was an animal. Weevils is what they called them, it's what Torchwood had always called them. They had been coming through the rift in Cardiff for over thirty years but they still had no way of knowing when, where or how. The only thing they could do was to try and stop them before they hurt anybody. Capturing them all had long been a discarded plan as they had been living and possibly breeding down in the sewers, obviously without Cardiff's inhabitants' knowledge. Plans had tried and failed to keep a count of them but most of the time they didn't cause widespread panic, which many of Torchwood's days were filled with, so they went to the back of the queue.

Trys wasted no time and he hurried towards the creature, feeling for his Weevil spray that should be in his pocket. He caught his foot on something in his hurry and stumbled as he heard a massive clang. The Weevil snarled, whipping its head round and staring right at him. Trys had caught a fair share of Weevils at his time with Torchwood, many single-handedly, but it was the same look every time and it made his blood run cold. Trys stood staring at the creature for several seconds, hypnotised by the slow, animalistic twisting of its head as it stared straight back. Then several things happened at once. First he heard a shout emanating from Ivy behind him. He noticed the blur of a figure that appeared out of nowhere, hidden somewhere out of sight. It was a young girl in gym attire, barely more than a teenager, and must have been what the Weevil was stalking as they came in. She had been hiding and taken this opportunity for her fear to get the better of her. She was fast, but the Weevil's hunting senses were on overdrive. It darted towards her lashing with its clawed hand while at the same Trys raised his loaded firearm and let off a round. The bullet hit the Weevil in the left shoulder as blood sprayed everywhere. The girl crumpled to the floor as the Weevil howled and hobbled away.

"FUCK!" Trys shouted as he tore after the creature. "IVY – THE GIRL!" Even wounded, the Weevil was still fast. Charging at the creature he realised that he still didn't have his Weevil spray to hand, but didn't have the time to find it. The Weevil turned the corner, gripping its shoulder as blood splashed all over the light blue carpets. The creature headed for a T-junction, but Trystan had caught up as he tackled the Weevil from behind. The two bipeds slammed into the wall in front, with the alien hitting its head so hard it created a small crater in the wall. Trys rolled; ready to hit the Weevil over the back of the head with his pistol but it was already unconscious. Trys caught his breath watching the creature's mouth twitch as it grunted in its sleep. He heard Ivy jogging to catch up behind him and knew what it meant. Trystan closed his eyes, resting his head on the floor and sighed.

"C'mon ladies and gentlemen – this way!" Lucia gestured behind her with her left hand with her right still holding her gun. "It's okay guys I'm with the police. Yes that way well done…" Rhydian had known his colleague long enough to hear the insincerity in her voice. She tried to keep a straight face as hordes of people streamed past them towards the open double doors behind them. Many of them were not wearing adequate clothing but all of them had looks of pure terror on their faces. A particular redhead caught both of the employees gaze, and they shared a look between them.

"Casualties look like a minimum." Luch commented to her partner as she surveyed the changing rooms. There were clothes and belongings scattered around everywhere but there were very few signs of a fight. Lucia had seen Weevils tear through crowds before; there was a difference between one that was on the hunt and one that was on the run. That was not to say that they were anything close to safe, a Weevil would punch a chunk out of a human no matter what mood they were in, and it would not take them much time or effort. "Rhydian have we got everyone out?" Luch asked moving forward.

"Nope. We have signals towards that way." He said looking up from the glowing device and pointed to their right. "Towards the pool?"

"We'll have to get there before the Weevil does…or it will be a bloodbath." Rhydian said calmly, following Luch. She stifled an incredibly guilty smirk.

"You are sick."

"Hey I didn't mean it like that." Rhydian didn't sound convinced himself. He shrugged, putting the device away.

The Weevil was confused. Records of the species' home worlds were somewhat insubstantial but many theories point to it being mostly open terrain to explain the creature's animalistic tendencies. It was almost unanimously agreed that they at least didn't have the level of complex construction that the human race was use to in 21st century Cardiff. This meant specifically things like doors really perplexed them, so imagine how this particular Weevil felt trapped in one of the biggest changing rooms in the city. All it seemed to be doing was corkscrewing around the area and routing through people's abandoned stuff.

The two members of Torchwood had been watching it for sometime and were rapidly enclosing it from two sides. Unlike their boss, both of them were ready, with one hand on their pistols and the other on their Weevil spray. They crept almost without sound, but the alien being still sensed them and turned to watch as the two moved towards it. The creature was in a changing room doorway and it realised its mistake as it backed away from the hunters straight into the enclosed space. Rhydian moved closer, lowering his weapon, concentrating on his incapacitating Weevil spray. He edged closer still, slowing down to almost a complete halt. Lucia gripped her weapon tighter, covering her partner. The Weevil was panicked and wasn't thinking straight. It lunged at Rhydian with an over the shoulder clawed hand. Rhydian had enough time to block his attacker with both of his forearms, but the blow still knocked him straight to the floor. This was the opening Lucia needed as she lunged forward spraying the creature on its exposed face. She ducked before the Weevil started thrashing and yanked Rhydian back to a reasonably safe distance.

The pair watched as the unfortunate alien scratched at its own eyes and shook its heavy head about in pain. It had taken enough spray to go down, they were just waiting for the poor creature to hit the deck. The Torchwood pair watched as the Weevil's movements got slower and more lethargic. It almost lost its balance, but regained it with a second wind as it stumbled off down the tiled corridor towards the leisure centres swimming pool.

Screams filled the air once more as the remaining hobbyists in the area caught sight of the creature as it headed out back in the open. The Torchwood pair chased after it watching as the Weevil still thrashed with it's impaired vision. Luckily the public were clever enough to stay away from it, Luch looked around and saw that the remaining group of people disappearing through a fire exit on the opposite side of the pool to them. She smiled as she watched several grown men shriek and disappear over the small grass patch behind, wearing only their trunks.

Meanwhile the Weevil started to slow again. Lucia and Rhydian had lowered their weapons and were just waiting for the creature to stop. The poor creature tried to hold it's tired head in its palms as it finally lost it's balance for the last time. Luch started towards it but was nowhere near quick enough to stop the alien from plunging head first into the deep end of the pool. It was unlikely that the creature was used to being submerged in water, as it reacted very badly. The Weevil started splashing around, writhing its arms beneath the water as it failed to stay buoyant. "Ooops." Luch walked towards the edge of the pool and bit her lip as she peered at the distorting outline of the drowning alien. "Ah well - we tried." Rhydian reached to his back of his jeans to put his pistol away. Lucia went to open her mouth, but no words came out as she failed to move. "Give it a minute, and we'll fish it out when it stops moving." Rhydian continued. "If only every job ended this easy." Lucia, copying her colleague, went to put her weapon away as the pair had a visitor.

Trystan strode through the shower section with his gun lowered. He had left the unconscious Weevil with Ivy, hoping to catch up with the other Weevil and it's pursuers. It sounded like all of the people in the building had got it out this time, the leisure centre was almost silent; the only sound was clanging of the water works and a faint sound of a local radio station playing. Trys slowed as he came to the swimming pool. He relaxed slightly to see the two members of Torchwood he was looking for, but was slightly anxious to see that the area was otherwise deserted. He looked between the sheepish looks of his team to the open fire door, expecting the creature had got away, before noticing the dark shadow below the surface of the deep end. Failing to see any blood, Trystan looked closer at the creature. Rhydian tried to explain. "It's been sprayed, it just fell in…" Trystan's anger rose and crossed his face. He looked between the two of them, who looked back expectantly. Rhydian donned his usual half-arsed expression, unsure what he was going to say, while Lucia looked a lot more sure, to the extent of guilt.

"For FUCK's sake. So you are just going to leave it?!" Trys grabbed his jacket and threw it off, treading on his heel and pulling his trainers off. "No wait – you ARE kidding….aren't you?" Rhydian looked towards him, incredulous.

"He's not." Lucia answered in a wincing tone. Trystan took a deep breath before leaping into the water.

Trystan held his eyes tightly shut as he hit the water. His clothes weighed him down and he reached the bottom fast. He must have descended three or four metres, feeling the pressure in his ears. The chlorine stung at his eyes as he looked towards the drowning Weevil. As he swam next to it, he was extremely wary of it's movements. If the creature were conscious enough to attack, Trystan would be extremely lucky to get away. He grabbed the creature from behind and pushed against the pool floor. Trys felt no resistant from the creature as it rose to the surface, its bulbous head lolling about in the water. As Trystan was about to hit the surface, a hand grabbed the dead weight of the creature from him and he reached out and another hand grasped his forearms. The water broke over his face as he saw the sight of Rhydian hauling him out of the pool. His eyes remained on the Weevil, coincidentally missing Trystan's gaze. Gaining his breath back , Trystan turned to watch as Lucia pulling the Weevil out of the water, pulling its arm awkwardly trying to stay away from it's talon-like fists. As he got closer, Trys saw that the alien's eyes were closed and it wasn't breathing. He toyed with the idea of trying to give it some kind of CPR, but it was extremely brief. He had no idea how a Weevils respiratory system worked. He thought for a split second, finding it extremely difficult to do nothing as the creature was likely dying in front of him. Trys had an idea, and went for it. He took a step back, and with as much power as he could, booted the Weevil in it's midriff with his barefoot. The body of the Alien felt solid and Trys gasped in pain. Rhydian and Lucia looked on in shock. The Weevil spasmed, then coughed as the team watched water splutter from the creature's fanged mouth. Trystan watched as it twitched and groaned on the floor. "I'm glad that worked, I would have felt awful otherwise."


	3. Chapter 3

"So how DID you do it?" Lucia asked. They were back in the office, or Torchwood 3b as it was sometimes known. Trystan's generation of alien catchers looked back in awe of the Torchwood golden age of underground hidden bases and skyscrapers. Ever since he had known the business, the Cardiff branch had worked straight from a modest office big enough for the four of them with a desk each, barely big enough to hold the filing cabinets and cupboards stuffed with guns and alien artefacts. Probably the most demeaning part of the downgrade was the fact that they had to share the facilities with a growing number or start-up businesses, and being three foot away from Meredith Celyn Marketing Agency doesn't help when you need to do a violent interrogation. Still, they had made do with the fold-away autopsy table and they had paid off the cleaners.

Lucia stared at Trystan across the room with her eyes narrowed, casually chewing on her pen. She gently spun on her office chair, her computer whirring, analysing data whilst emitting the classic extra-terrestrial glow from the foreign symbols on the screen. Trystan looked up from his paperwork, the question had piqued the interest of his other employees. "Look if you want to know what happened why don't you read the formal mission debrief?" he retorted, trying to hide a smile. "I did." Lucia dropped the pen from her mouth. "It said nothing. And it wasn't formal, you said 'fuck' twice." Trystan cleared his throat and looked sheepish. "Yeah well, who's going to read that? Apart from you."

"Isn't that bloke in Edinburgh still alive? From Torchwood 2?" Lucia asked. It was more of a question than an argument, she had got his point. "I heard he hired an angry Glaswegian man." Rhydian butted in.  
"Remind me to put off my visit…" Trystan muttered under his breath. "Anyway 'how' is not important. We got the thing!" He reached into a draw to his left and pulled out the 'Black Box'. It didn't look like a black box, it was cylindrical for a start, and it had simple markings and the top and bottom. The symbols didn't look complicated enough to be a language, most of them just looked like outlines of rice. Trystan was wise enough to know that you should never leave anything alien down to assumption, which is what Luch's computer was busy doing and why, in fact, she was free to ask awkward questions.

"So remind me again why we have pissed of a global organisation to steal this back? I mean apart from the fact it is ours?" Rhydian asked, taking of his reading glasses. This time Trystan even had Ivy's attention as their triple gazes fixed on him. "Okay so I don't know." Trystan started honestly. "BUT." He paused. "Back before Jack, before Canary Wharf blew up, some Torchwood 3 projects were off the record. Dead simple, the London branch was bigger than ours, they got all the important stuff. If this Toshiko Sato did anything ground breaking Yvonne would have taken in off her and reassigned it closer to home. Now this means there is very little about it in the official files, what _is_ there is mostly after she snuffed it, and no one else knows as much as she did. We don't know when it was installed but it saved The Hub from a Dalek invasion which was paramount in the saving of the Earth – Well done us – then shortly deactivated by Jack's flying whizzy mate…" Trys waved his free hand in the air. "…you know the one in the box?" The rest of the team stared on blankly. "Anyway, they could never reactivate it, so shortly after when The Hub was destroyed…well you can read the report." He paused again. "So if it was broke and useless why did UNIT steal it and put it in the Black Vault? And if it was so important why was I allowed to steal it?" Trystan was feeling his excitement build as Lucia threw him a weird look. "So what do the four of us have that the biggest global extra-terrestrial and paranormal focused military intelligence agency don't?" His excitement topped as he threw a pointed finger straight towards Rhydian, who was not affected by the enthusiasm in the room and simply shrugged. Trys' point switched to Lucia's slightly awkward blank face, before switching to his final employee, his arm now arced over his monitor, his eyes just peering past his pointed finger boring straight into Ivy's quiet corner. She was cringing, afraid to get the question wrong. "Cardiff?" she said softly. Trystan brought his palm down hard onto the table making all three of them jump. "Right." Trystan said much slower, though he was still buzzing. "We still have Cardiff."

Trystan set the computers to night mode and pulled on his coat. His employees had already left the office room and were waiting for him the other side of the door. He idly pulled and some of the cabinet draws, making sure the alien artefacts of severe peril were safely locked behind a primitive earth lock. "Force of habit I s'pose." he announced to the empty room. He had tended to always finish off a thought with a sentence but since working with Torchwood so long, he got the increasing sense that someone was watching him.

As he pulled their main door closed and locked it, (which was fortunately more than a primitive earth lock) he was greeting with the familiar sight of a two-dimensional owl staring straight into his soul. The old Torchwood 3 didn't worry too much about secrecy, but then their base was buried beneath the floor. Torchwood 3b could barely have 'TORCHWOOD' plastered in capitals across the door of a shared office block. So they were 'Crowd Hoot', a late-late night events management team. Hence, the owl, hence the 'I haven't slept in weeks', bloodshot stare that the owl was forever producing. Trystan had been quite proud of the anagram, but Lucia obviously had a bad day at work to come up with the design. It was hardly inconspicuous, but it kept people away. But then it did attract weirdos, but then so did Torchwood. Hidden in plain sight.

"So then…Pub?" Trystan asked his employees. He was insanely desperate to march them all down to Cardiff Bay this instant to finally solve the mystery but if they were being watched they'd have to play it relatively cool. "I've got a raid, gotta be home for nine" Rhydian excused himself as they all headed for the stairs.  
"Please tell me that's not a game thing!" Trystan commented incredulously. "I thought video games were for people who don't get enough excitement in real life?"

"I don't get enough excitement in real life." he replied in a dead pan voice.

"Right okay." He paused, worried "Bright and early tomorrow!" Trystan pointed after Rhydian as he headed off in a different direction for home.  
"I'm not the one going for a drink."

"Whatever." Trys muttered. "Pub?" he asked again to the remaining employees.

"Alright Dave, I'll have the usual, and get these ladies whatever they are having and stick it on the Hoot's tab." Of course, Torchwood's main job was alien catching, but they did have to put up a front for events and what-not. It had its upsides, especially when they had such great contacts for alcohol related needs. They were at a one of these such places, which was an almost 24/7 bar. Trystan often argued that appearing in places like these semi-frequently helped with their 'cover', although this was greatly disputed amongst the team.

Lucia and Ivy grabbed a space at the bar while Trystan got deep in discussion with one of his 'contacts'. "What are you having?" An attractive, young barman asked in a soft South Walian accent. Ivy opened her mouth to order but Luch beat her to it. "Sex on the Beach and a Jack Daniels please" she asked with a flirtatious smile.

"I was just going to have an orange juice." Ivy said, and the barman paused.  
"Nah it's fine, Trystan's paying." She waved the barman off and he started to prepare the drinks. That wasn't what Ivy meant but she managed a small smile, one that was returned with another one of Lucia's famous flirtatious ones. Luch took the cue to gently slide her arm around Ivy, holding her by the waist and pulling the two slightly closer. Ivy looked uncomfortable and gently tried to ease Lucia's arm away. "Not here…" she said quietly and didn't get any resistance and Luch dropped her arm. Ivy kept her small smile in case she had offended Lucia, but her colleague wasn't at all bothered. She sniggered as if she revelled in it. "We could always go somewhere else…" Ivy's mind flashed back to one of the pairs more recent outings where she had end up being pinned against a toilet cubicle wall. The thought sent waves of excitement through her as her gaze involuntarily fell towards the very toilets she was thinking of over Lucia's shoulder. This didn't go unnoticed, and Lucia grinned as their eyes met. Ivy quickly dropped her gaze as the barman returned with their drinks. Lucia took the cocktail and seductively sucked through the straw hooking the barman who paused, slightly taken aback. Ivy embarrassingly also found herself staring and awkwardly looked away

"Mmm…That is good..." She said to the barman before passing to Ivy and taking hold of her whisky. The barman continued to stare until Lucia gently gestured at him to leave before he woke himself up and continued down the bar to the other waiting patrons. She turned back to her companion. "You do realise that if get a number from this guy, you'll have lost the bet?" Ivy sighed. Lucia's smile dropped to one that was somewhat empathetic. "Ivy what's up?" She asked.

"Nothing." Ivy began, before realising that really wasn't going to work. "I'm not sure if I feel like much tonight." Ivy trailed off.

"It was that girl wasn't it?" Lucia asked softly. Ivy had quickly learnt to revere Lucia's razor-sharp perception.

"I've seen some shit but…she was barely younger than me. We could have done it differently. And she could be alive now."

"And you could be dead. Don't get lost in what-ifs." Lucia responded, taking a sip of her drink.

"I know. I just feel like I'm the only one of us like this and the rest of you…well, just get on with it."

"Well Rhydian is definitely stone cold. But you're not the only one." Lucia pointed down the bar to where Trystan was. His 'contact' had moved off and he was at the bar staring all the way down to the bottom of his half-full, murky drink, with what could possibly be interpreted as a pained expression on his face. The barman rushed passed him as he got on with his job and jolted from his daydream, quickly applying a smile to his distracted face. He looked towards the women, Ivy avoided his gaze but Lucia held it. With a very convincing grin he downed the remains of his drink and headed over. "Well I'm off."

"Already? We only just got here" Lucia retorted

"Bright and early remember. Don't have too much fun." Lucia raised her eyebrow. He pulled his coat up, whilst offering Ivy a comforting look before leaving.

"And then there were two…" Lucia finished her drink. "Now what would you like to do…" She let the question hang in the air.

"Let's get drunk." Ivy sighed before grabbing her drink.

"That certainly sounds promising…" Lucia waved at the barman. "Can we get some more drinks? Also…" She winked at Ivy "How about giving me your number?"


End file.
